MOMA Video Game Exhibit — Go Here

When you think of New York's Museum of Modern Art, you probably imagine giant splatter paintings and jars of toenail clippings. Not your thing? No worries; they also have a new video game collection.

While MOMA is not the first museum to dedicate some space to the art of video game design and programming, they may be the most prestigious yet. If you're a video game fan then you already know that game design is an art form, and now the art world is starting to bring game designers into the fold of the fine art world. It's about time.

The MOMA collection began in March with 14 iconic titles released between 1980 and 2009. The selections were made based on the history and backstory behind the creation of the games, their importance in the development of game culture, actual gameplay, soundtracks, and visual esthetics. They did a good job picking, as the list includes many of our favorites: Pac-Man, Tetris, SimCity 2000, The Sims, EVE Online, Portal, Myst, Another World, vib-ribbon, Katamari Damacy, Dwarf Fortress, flOW, Passage and Canabalt. We approve.

MOMA has plans to expand the exhibition over time to include such favorites as 1962's Spacewar!, Pong, Space Invaders, Super Mario Bros, Minecraft, Snake, (oh how we miss our Nokia brick phone sometimes) Asteroids, The Legend of Zelda, Street Fighter II (the best game of all time), and Animal Crossing.

The installation is now permanently displayed in MOMA's Philip Johnson gallery, giving you a reason to go to a museum. Check out this TED Talk by MoMA's senior curator of architecture and design Paola Antonelli, explaining her decision to exhibit the games: